The present invention relates to a novel and useful book recycling apparatus.
The recycling of used and discarded books is a desirable objective. However, it has been found that simple recycling techniques applicable to newsprint and like materials does not apply to books. A problem exists in that glues used to fasten covers to pages of a book cause chemical imbalance problems when books are reprocessed into a pulp material. In addition, covers of certain books, especially hardbacks, are not easily processed due to non-paper materials, coatings, and the like. Thus, it is imperative that the binding and cover portions be separated from a book prior to recycling of the pages within the book.
In the past, binding portions of books have been separated manually. This, of course, it is a difficult and time-consuming task.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,367 describes a document trimming apparatus in which a stack of sheets are positioned on a surface and trimmed by a knife.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,571 describes a machine for removing bookbindings in which a book is positioned on a surface and the binding is separated from the remainder portions of the book by a swinging knife assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,407 describes a method and apparatus for handling book trimmings in which a guillotine blade separates the binding of the book from the remainder portion. The binder is then processed through an assembly in which the cover portions are further separated from the pages found in the binding by a pair of rotating blades.
An apparatus for easily removing and separating pages from a book in a unitary operation would be a notable advance in the field of recycling of materials.
In accordance with the present invention a novel and useful apparatus for separating the spine, cover portion, and pages of a book is herein provided.
The apparatus of the present invention utilizes a holding structure for supporting a book in a certain position where the spine of the book extends outwardly from the holding structure. Such structure may take the form of a pair of closed loop belts each biased toward one another by a plurality of opposed rollers. Means is also included for conveying the book along a particular path. The book would be fed into the space or channel between the belts from a platform which lies below the extremity of the belts. Thus, the book is held between and moves with the belts such that the spine of the book is exposed.
A cutter is positioned below the belts to severe the spine from the remainder of the book. Such cutter may take the form of a rotating blade which rotates in the direction of the movement of the book at a slightly greater speed than the movement of the book with the opposing belts. That is to say, the rollers supporting the belts may also include a driving mechanism which serves as such means for conveying the book supported by the holding structure. Such driving member may take the form of a motor which is capable of rotating one or more of the rollers, rendering the remaining rollers as ones which passively rotate and bias a particular belt.
Means is also included for conveying the cover portion and pages beyond the point of contact of the book with the cutter. That is to say, the binding severed from the book by the cutter separates and is conveyed away from the apparatus at this point. The cover portion and the pages are conveyed away from the cutter for further processing.
Means is also provided in the present invention for separating the cover portion from the pages of the book. Such means may externalize in utilizing the same close loop belts to further move the cover portion and pages of the book away from the cutter. Following such movement, a vacuum or suction force is applied to each belt to hold the cover portion thereto. At this point, the pages of the book would separate from the cover portion and be conveyed away from the apparatus. Finally, the cover portion of the book would reach the end of the closed loop belts and be positioned in a third conveyor or container for disposal.
It may be apparent that a novel and useful apparatus for separating parts of a book for the purpose of recycling has been hereinabove described.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide to an apparatus for separating parts of a book for the purpose of recycling which achieves such result automatically following the feeding of a book into the apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating parts of a book for the purpose of recycling the same in which spine and cover portions are segregated from the pages of the book in an efficient manner.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating parts of a book for the purpose of recycling the same which is capable of processing soft and hard cover books without loss of efficiency.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating the parts of a book for the purposes of recycling the same which processes books at a rapid rate compared to devices and processes of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating parts of a book for the purpose of recycling the same which is economical and may be operated to recover the cost of the apparatus in a short period of time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for separating parts of a book for the purposes of recycling the same in which the apparatus includes components that are easily obtainable and maintained during operation of the apparatus.
The invention possesses other objects and advantages especially as concerns particular characteristics and features thereof which will become apparent as the specification continues.